Programs - School Assembly Steel Band

(Future Program - Spring 2010)

The School Assembly Steel Band Program focuses on Caribbean Arts through cultural presentation, musical performances and student band participation.

Steel Band Program

A 45-minute, live steel drum band musical performance with intermittent story-telling about how steel drums were invented and made. Includes student participation, hands-on steel drum demonstrations and question and answer period.

This program is designed for elementary and intermediate school students

Benefits

A dynamic, fun and meaningful way of introducing students to important aspects of Caribbean culture -- steel drums, calypso and reggae music.

It is our goal to solicit professional Steel Bands to come into the school setting and mentor the children on playing the various steel instruments which make up this unique sound.

Background

The steel drum musical instrument is the pride of the Caribbean. The only acoustic musical instrument invented in the 20th century, its popularity has grown such that there are now more than 300 school steel band programs in the United States alone. Our exciting and engaging presentation will introduce students to the spirit and joy of steel drums.

The first true steelpan used by musicians was an empty biscuit container. The next development was the discovery that when you hammered a paint pan out from the inside, different notes could be played on the pan. Soon the bent peace of steel gave way to the steeldrum that could produce simple melodies. The early steelpans made of paint tins or biscuit tins had only a handful of notes. They were one foot in diameter and two feet long. They were tuned to the highest upper pitch note the steelpan could produce.

Soon drummers discovered that bulges of different sizes in the bottom of a tin could produce sounds of various pitches. In 1939, a drummer named Winston "Spree" Simon began playing melodies on the first tuned tins. He is considered to be the inventor of the tuned tins. Spree later produced the first convex (dome- shaped) steelpan.

Originally, steelpans were convex; however, the pursuit of a wider range of notes produced the development of a concave instrument. In a steel band, the melodies are played on a tenor pan, which can play a complete low pitch scale. The bands also have double tenor pans, a pair of lower pitch drums in which a lower pitch scale is divided between the two drums. Treble and harmonic drums are also featured.

Pan music developed rapidly during the late 1930s, and by 1941 many steel bands playing in Trinidad became popular among U.S. soldiers based on the naval bases on the island.  Today, huge steel band orchestras are common in many Caribbean islands and extremely popular with American audiences.